Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Chinese New Year fire crackers

Today is the ninth day of the Chinese Lunar Calendar New Year. Wow, some Chinese say that this day is even "bigger" than the original Chinese New Year. Indeed. I saw so many more people selling firecrackers along the roadsides, market.. despite the police patrollng... ahem hem... wonder wonder.. anyway, it's not my thing to wonder about it.

So indeed, as the clock struck midnight yesterday, I could here all the loud bangs. Poor my doggies n kitties, they're trying their best to hide somewhere.. unfortunately.. there's no cave in my house. So I managed to capture a sequence of the fire crackers near my house with my ipad (ipad does a fabulous job at capturing quick pictures).

Wow.. when I look at the pictures, it's a bit scary. It seem like explosions, big explosions, which explodes into meteors of fire which disappear into the darkness of the night as stardusts.
Man's creations... but how much more wonderful is God's creation? ;-)

Praise God in everything... A very happy CHinese New Year to everyone... especially to my dear readers. ;-)

Sunday, January 29, 2012

The trip to Beijing

Initially I was pretty depressed and upset, worried and anxious about my upcoming trip to Beijing. Basically because of the fact that it's winter (I'm so afraid of cold! Even Kota Kinabalu's 9'C made me think I could die anytime). Secondly, I'll be travelling alone - boo booo.... Thirdly, I've not planned up anything to tour there. Fourthly, I've heard much rumours about the CHinese (sorry, I'm a Chinese myself, but... the values may vary...). Recently how the teenager got hit by the van, and how so many Chinese people walk pass the toddler which was hit by a van and not even turn an eye on the toddler.. that's scary indeed.

However, I believe that's just the ugly side. I pray that God will place good angels around me, so that I may enjoy and marvel at His creations in His favour and mercy, as well as the Chinese around me.

Now the negative mood has slowly switched to positive - I'm getting excited! In fact I'm starting to plan this and that, and it's going to be fun (I suppose!) I can even roughly draw the Beijing map to you at anytime... Yes.. That's the way to go...

May God's grace and favour and mercy be upon me, everywhere I go.

=)

Friday, January 27, 2012

Applying for visa at the Chinese Embassy

Yeah, today I went to the Chinese Embassy to apply visa for my trip to beijing next month.
Prior to this I've googled much to findout the procedure, what to expect... and my.. google is indeed a blessing to many of us out here.

Just a click - and I found all I ever needed. But some of the information I found is a bit outdated.. so today I'll share my little experience.

The Chinese Embassy is located at the 2nd floor of the OSK Plaza, which shares the same building as Bank of China. Bank of CHina on the right, OSK left. You can find the location of the Bank of China or OSK Plaza from google map, but bear in mind to use the "satellite" view instead of "map" coz the "map's" is erronous. WHen you're at JalanAmpang, OSK Plaza will be on your left.



So I turned left and found a big parking lot on my left (as you can see from the above pic), paid RM3 for 1st hour and walked across the street into OSK building. (this is very detailed indeed huh!) Don't be afraid to get lost cozyou'll not be. Once I walked near the building, I think almost 5 security guards turned their eyes on me - and started to enquire where you're going. It's as though this is some VIP's residential building! They're very helpful and polite, I think they looked like preparing for some terrorist attack kind of thing. But very nice experience. So they showed me to the lift, I went to the 2nd floor, and the guards were back to their original positions.

Once I got out of the lift, there was a long queue, slight commotion going on coz somebody couldn't get what he wanted and I only heard him saying, "This is ridiculous.. " sort of thing. Anyway, prior to that I have already printed out my visa applicaiton form which I got online, pasted my pic on it - and the receptionist told me to refil my form - it's outdated!

ouch! There goes... The embassy is quite clean, systematic, we have at least 3-4 form-filling counters, each with 2 pens attached. The new form is more required more details than the old one's. Nevertheless, I passed my forms to the receptionist, he gave me a call number, and immediately my number was called and I went to counter number 17.

The chinese lady was very polite, but her accent was mildly heavy - if you know what i mean. I could understand perhaps 70% of her words, though we're bothe speaking the same language - chinese mandarin. :P

So I passed her a new passport sized photo of mine, she took my passport, and asked me is it ok for me to get my visa after 4 days, I said yes, so she briefed that I shall come back 6 days later (which includes sat n sunday) to get my visa, pay RM58, and get back my passport. Then I left, the whole procedure took me less than half an hour despite filling up the form and the long queue.

So the summary, what yo have to bring to the chinese embassy:
- passport sized photo (without hat, light back ground)
- passport
- details of your travelling itineries, stay, medical insurance, emergency contacts, employers/ family contacts - coz you'll need these in your application forms.

Visa Fees (Ringgit)

Malaysian Citizen
Single Entry: 30
Double Entry: 50
6-Month Multiple Entry: 80
12-Month/24-month Multiple Entry: 120

US Citizen
465

Other Country Citizen
Single Entry: 130
Double Entry: 200
6-Month Multiple Entry: 250
12-Month Multiple Entry: 400

Express Service: 100 (3 working days)
Rush Service: 140 (same day)

Application Service Fees
Regular service: 28 (4 working days)
Express service: 100 (3 working days)
Rush service: 140(same day)

Note:
(1) Visa Fees are collected on behalf of the Chinese Embassy.
(2) Application Service Fees are charged by the Visa Application Service Centre.
(3) The total amount of the fees to be paid by an applicant = visa fees + application service fees.

So next week I'll have to pay RM30 + RM28 = RM58.

For more information, pleas click: http://www.chinese-embassy.info/asia/visa-mys.htm